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 Sermon > Theme Words of Life |
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Title |
Spirit, soul and body(22) - The 3rd lecture on - Spirit, soul and body(1) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
1 Jn 2:24-25 |
Date |
2004-09-12 |
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[Scripture]
1 John [2:24-25]
"Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. [25] And this is the promise that He has promised us--eternal life."
[Introduction]
Dear brothers and sisters, this is the firs session of the 3rd spirit, soul, and body lectures.
The third lecture is in more depth. I will first explain about the aspect of the body, then soul, and then spirit, like in the 1st and 2nd lectures.
The 1st lectures on spirit, soul, and body were about what kind of being man is, namely, how the body of men are formed and grow.
Next, in the 2nd lectures, I emphasized on knowing oneself. Namely, it was lectures on who we are and how we were made since our birth.
Namely, the actual entity is not the body, which is the outer shell, but the spirit inside us. Only when we understand about our actual entity, namely our spirit, can we seek the true value of life. Life on this earth for 70 or 80 years is not everything.
Even though our breathing stops and body decays away, our spirit can never become extinct and will go to either heaven or hell.
Depending on what kind of value we seek and how we live on this earth, our life in eternity will be decided; we will either enjoy eternal life in the kingdom of heaven or fall into the fiery hell and suffer for ever.
The subject of the 3rd lectures on spirit, soul, and body is 'eternal life'.
It is the word that lets you accomplish not spirit, soul, and body belonging to the flesh but spirit, soul, and body belonging to spirit as God's children so that you will possess eternal life.
Today's Scripture 1 John 2:24-25 says, "Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. [25] And this is the promise that He has promised us--eternal life." If what we hear first in church, in other words, the Word of God dwells in us, we come to dwell in the Lord and God.
Then, God lets us possess eternal life, namely the kingdom of heaven as He promised us.
However, we will not gain eternal life just by attending church. God's Word has to dwell in us.
Then, we will not only gain eternal life in heaven but also accomplish our dreams on this earth as well. We can enjoy whatever we hope for in the Lord: the foolish will gain wisdom, the weak strength, and the poor richness.
I hope these messages will become life and strength to you and God's truth will dwell in you.
I bless in the name of the Lord that you will dwell in the Lord and the Father and enjoy eternal life and God's blessings.
[Body]
Dear brothers and sisters, members who are attending the service through the satellite all over the country, members of branch churches, local sanctuaries, Light and Salt mission, Restaurant Mission, members who are attending the service on the Internet all over the world, [children of Sunday school]
Let me supplement what we learned last time before we get into the 3rd lecture on spirit, soul, and body.
I told you that there is obvious truth and obvious untruth, and conscience and nature in one's heart.
This conscience and nature are both mixed with truth and untruth, and they are all different from person to person.
To be a little more specific, conscience is the standard with which each person judges good and evil.
To the extent that people see, hear, and accept evil in their heart, their conscience becomes more and more evil. Later, even when they see something evil, they would not realize it is evil. On the contrary, to the extent that we plant truth in our heart by believing God, our conscience will become good.
Therefore, for you to become sanctified, you have to get rid of the obvious heart of untruth as well as the evil in your conscience. And it is not all. You also have to find out the deep evil, which is the untruth hidden deep inside your nature and get rid of it to be completely sanctified.
Nature, if we compare it with soil, is like the quality of soil. It is passed down through the life energy of the parents. It is also formed in the depth of our heart unknowingly as we grow up.
This untruth in our nature cannot be found by ourselves.
That is why God allowed righteous people like Job and David to face trials to let them find out the untruth in their nature.
If you do not commit any sin with action and with heart, and also if you find out the evil in your nature and get rid of it, you can be recognized that you have perfectly spiritual heart.
Dear brothers and sisters, in order to accomplish this kind of spiritual heart, let us begin the 3rd lectures on the spirit, soul, and body.
First, we will consider the aspect of body. I already told you that there are two meanings in the word 'body'.
The first meaning is our body that is visible and tangible, and the second meaning is flesh, namely everything that belongs to untruth, everything that perishes and changes.
The opposite of this second meaning is spirit. It is something eternal, spiritual, and perfect, and is truth, life, and the like.
In the aspect of body of the 3rd lectures on spirit, soul, and body, we will learn how to belong to the spirit that is eternal and divine.
But to understand about body that we have to get rid of, we have to learn many terminologies from now. They are: body, deeds of the body, flesh, things of the flesh, sinful body, and works of the flesh, lust of flesh, lust of eyes, and the pride of life.
Before learning the spiritual meanings, body, flesh, and sinful body sound very similar to each other. Even the deeds of body, things of the flesh, and works of flesh seem to have no differences.
But all these terms have different meanings, and when we read the Bible knowing the spiritual meanings correctly, we can understand the concept of salvation more clearly as well as how to become sanctified.
Now, let us first delve into the deeds of body. Romans 8:13 says, "For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live."
If we put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit, we will live, namely we will be saved.
We can put to death the deeds of the body only when we know what they are. Does it mean that we have to get rid of deeds of the body like sitting down, lying down, eating and so on? Of course not!
Conclusively, the body here does not refer to our physical body but the remaining flesh from which the knowledge of truth went out.
To understand the spiritual meaning of this 'body', we have to go back to the first man Adam.
God made the first man Adam and breathed into his nostrils to make him a living spirit.
Just as a newborn baby has no knowledge in his brain, Adam's heart when he was first created was like a blank sheet of paper without anything written on it.
It only had the seed of life and the spirit itself. So God planted knowledge of truth in it one by one.
What, then, is the knowledge of truth? It is light, love, goodness, faithfulness, righteousness, wisdom, and other kinds of knowledge that resemble God's heart.
Filling Adam with knowledge of truth does not mean that he memorized all those things only with his brain.
The truth itself was completely in him, and his heart, thoughts, and actions came from truth only. This is to possess knowledge of truth.
In Adam's heart was planted this kind of knowledge of truth, and he ruled over everything on this earth as well as Eden of the second heaven as the lord of all creation who resembles God's image.
But after an unimaginable period of time had passed, he could not bear God's word in his mind and finally committed a sin of disobedience.
Namely, he ate the forbidden fruit.
Now, according to the spiritual law that dictates that the wages of sin is death, the spirit of Adam who committed a sin died. Since then, the knowledge of truth that was planted by God began to leak out from Adam's heart.
Since the relationship with God who was supplying the knowledge of truth was disconnected, even the knowledge of truth that Adam used to have began to leak out.
Since the knowledge of truth began to leak out, Adam's heart was filled with untruth that was brought by the enemy devil and Satan, instead of knowledge of truth.
Dear brothers and sisters, usually, if we say body, we refer to our physical body. But when it is said, "By Spirit put to death the deeds of body," the body here has spiritual meaning. It refers to the body of man from which the knowledge of truth leaked out, and which is stained with untruth. It is fleshly body that will perish.
For example, when there is a cup with some liquid in it, the cup can be compared to our body and the liquid our spirit.
Even the same cups will have different value according to what kind of liquid they hold. If the cup contains clean water or cool drink, it would be valuable. But if it contains dirty water, the cup is dirty too.
In the same way, even the body of Adam, when it was containing the knowledge of truth, namely when it was a living spirit, was valuable and immortal.
It was a beautiful, spiritual body that does not get old, die, or decay.
His behaviors were so noble and dignified that they could not be compared to those of any king or royal family members.
However, when the knowledge truth leaked out from Adam and untruth filled him instead, man's body became so unworthy.
As all fleshly things are so, the body of man that is combined with untruth gets old, gets sick, dies, and perishes away.
Also, after changing into flesh like this, the deeds of body come out from the untruth of which the body is full. For example, there are some people who raise their fist first, slam the door to close it, or throw away some things when they get angry.
Some of the people speak bad words in each sentence. Some others do not talk to a person of different sex with decency but with lustful eyes and faces and actions.
Still others are proud and haughty that they command and order their juniors. All these things are the deeds of body that come out from the untruth stored in them.
The deeds of body include not only sinful actions but also actions that are not perfect. Some people tap on others or point their fingers at somebody habitually when they talk. When they concentrate on their talking, their voice is raised and it sounds like they are having a big argument.
These things might seem trivial and we will not fall into death only because we do not get rid of them. However, originally, all these deeds are resulted from the body combined with untruth.
Jesus is filled only with knowledge of truth, and what kind of deeds did He show to us when He was on the earth? Also, what kind of deeds do you think the patriarchs of faith had?
If we fill our heart only with knowledge of truth, we will not have any kind of evil deed but dignified and perfect behaviors.
The sitting posture, walking, speech, and even one facial expression will be made beautiful within truth, so that one's life itself will be offered to God as a pleasing aroma.
Long time ago, when I held the knob of a door, I was surprised to feel static electric shock.
It kept on happening, so I held the knob very carefully and opened and closed the door very carefully. This became a habit, and when I held other things, I held them very carefully.
Then, I no more had the static electricity.
I realized that God wants us not only to get rid of all kinds of evil but also to have perfect deeds in everything with the refinement of the Lord.
I could feel and put into my heart the delicate love of the Father who led me to change my deeds like Jesus from whom people could not hear any sound when He was walking by.
1 Peter 1:15 says, "As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct."
Also Philippians 4:8 says, "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy--meditate on these things."
I urge you to accomplish sanctification of your heart and at the same time have beautiful deeds that are holy and pure, lovely and of good report.
Dear brothers and sisters, I told you that the knowledge of truth leaked out from Adam and man's body became a fleshly body that is perishable.
Because our bodies became fleshly bodies, we have sins in our bodies and commit sins with deeds. And these things are connected with the terms 'flesh' and 'sinful body'.
Romans 8:13 says, "For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." You will die here means eternal death, namely hell.
If this flesh refers to our body that is made up of bones and flesh, even the believers are in flesh and they all have to go to hell.
Therefore, the word flesh here does not refer to our physical body but it has a spiritual meaning. Also, Romans 9:8 says, "those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God," and if the word flesh here also refers to our physical body made up of bones and flesh, it means we are not God's children.
Therefore, even in this verse, we should be able to understand what the word flesh here spiritually means.
In the Bible, there are many verses with this word 'flesh' with spiritual meaning.
Romans 7:14 says, "For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin."
Also, 1 Corinthians 3:1 says, "And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ."
The following verse 1 Corinthians 3:3 says, "for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations?"
Man of the flesh here symbolizes those who have jealousy and quarreling and who are like infants in Christ. Namely, it means they have little faith.
The spiritual meaning of the word 'flesh' here refers to the body combined with sinful nature from which the knowledge of truth leaked out. Because the devil implants many kinds of sinful nature into men, these sinful natures combine with bodies.
Next, Romans 8:5 says, "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit." When we categorize the sinful nature called flesh one by one, they are things of the flesh.
There are sinful things such as hatred, quarrel, jealousy, envy, dishonest, cunningness, pride, anger, judging, condemnation, adultery, lust and so on. As a whole, we call them 'flesh'. When we refer to them one by one, it is the things of the flesh.
For example, when we talk about sauces, there could be sugar, salt, sesame, ketchup, soy sauce, soy bean sauce and so on. We refer to all of them as a whole with the word 'sauce'. In the same way, we refer to all kinds of things of the flesh as flesh.
However, the word flesh does not always have this kind of meaning in the Bible. For example, the Gospel of John 1:14 says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."
Jesus, who had neither original sin nor sins committed by Himself, became flesh and dwelt among us. The word flesh here does not refer to the body that is combined with sins but just human body.
So the same word flesh sometimes means flesh with spiritual meaning and some other times just physical body. So you should be able to distinguish according to the context.
Dear brothers and sisters, if we have flesh, namely if our bodies are combined with sinful natures, we do commit sins with not only thoughts and heart but it will come out as deeds after all.
For example, if we have dishonest in heart, it will come out as words and actions of deceiving others in certain situations.
Likewise, the flesh coming out as action is sinful body, and I will explain about this in the next session.
[Conclusion]
Dear brothers and sisters, Romans 6:6 says, "knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin."
For us to believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord is to no longer be slaves of sin and to become a new creation that obeys God's Word.
We have to crucify the old being, wearing the body of sin that will perish, and become a new person belonging to spirit.
To do this, as I mentioned in the introduction already, you have to keep what you hear in the beginning. I will explain how to take off body of sin and put on the new person for many sessions. But briefly speaking, you have to keep what the Bible says such as do this, don't do that, keep this, and get rid of that.
You should also put into practice the words you heard in the beginning such as 'keep the Sabbath', 'Pray', 'Love', 'Throw away anger and desire', 'Do not be jealous' and so on.
Then, you will not have the body belonging to flesh that contains untruth but change into spiritual body filled with truth. You will finally be able to gain the fruit of complete salvation as God's holy children.
I urge you to find out every single fleshly thing in yourself and get rid of them completely through the messages.
I bless in the name of the Lord that you will change into God's spiritual children and finish the preparations to receive the Lord who is coming back again. |
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